Full Description
This book provides case studies on the strategies used by African governments in monitoring and controlling digital and social media, as well as the implications of such actions for claims about media freedom and freedom of expression.
Further, the book examines the human rights challenges posed by state control and monitoring of digital and social media forms of communication. In the context of a digital surveillance state, it questions how digital and social media can possibly enhance the democratisation of both the communicative and political spaces.
The book focuses on questions of censorship and control of digital and social media in 'supposedly' democratic societies. It discusses regulation and how governments have imposed their state power by 'switching off' the internet and blocking social media sites under the guise of national security and order maintenance.
Contents
Contributors
Introduction
Chapter 1. The Materiality and Political Economy of Social Media in Africa: Power Retention and (Dis)Empowerment
Chapter 2. Digital Communication and Social Media Infrastructures in Eswatini: Legitimating or Challenging the Status Quo?
Chapter 3. Regulating Dissent on Social Media during Elections: The Cases of Uganda and Zimbabwe
Chapter 4. Instigators, Rebels, Miscreants, and Hooligans: Reframing Social Media Activists in Contemporary Africa
Chapter 5. The Weaponisation of Social Media in Zimbabwe: An Insight into Internet Usage and Government Restrictive Responses
Chapter 6. Wedging Participatory Gaps? Minority Superusers' Dominance of Discourse on Twitter during Elections and the Perpetuation of Online Discursive Inequalities
Chapter 7. Social Media, Digital Influencers, and Social Participation in Mozambique: A Case Study of the Digital Influencer Salésio Do Pânico
Chapter 8. Animation and Social Media as Alternative and Counterhegemonic Digital Public Sphere in Zimbabwe
Conclusions. Navigating the Contested Terrain of Digital and Social Media in Africa
Index
